i6o THE STATE AND PRIVATE FORESTS 



plantations, and the State pays the cost of afforesting 

 the area ; the proceeds of the crops are then divided 

 between the owner and the State in a proportion 

 depending upon the part each has taken in the 

 initial and subsequent outlay. The owner thus 

 maintains throughout a direct interest in both land 

 and crop. For proprietors who are able to forgo 

 the rent they were receiving for the land, this is 

 undoubtedly the best system. The owner of the 

 land has another advantage under the leasing system, 

 in that he eventually receives fuU control of his 

 land, whose value by then will have considerably 

 increased. 



There remains for consideration the areas felled 

 over during the war. It may be admitted that 

 proprietors of woods have received a price for their 

 timber out of all proportion to its pre-war value. 

 A proportion of it was unsaleable before the war. 



For various reasons, chiefly the labour one, it 

 has remained unplanted. Had the War Office per- 

 mitted the employment of German prisoners much 

 earlier in the war years than was the case, a good 

 deal of the replanting of some of these areas might 

 have been undertaken, and some proprietors would 

 have been glad to have devoted a portion of the 

 sums received for their timber to this purpose. 

 Little has been done in this connection. The war 

 dragged on, and probably but a small proportion of 

 proprietors are now in a financial position which will 

 enable them, however willing, to expend consider- 

 able sums on replanting their feUed-over areas. 



In the interests of the country it is, however, of 



